Alternatives to drill press?

[Verzila]

I need to drill into the top of my guitar for studs bushings for a wrapover bridge. Needless to say the holes need to be accurately and cleanly drilled, so hand-drilling is not on, but I haven't got a drill press, or have access to one, so I wondered if anyone had any suggestions?

What do people think of the drill stand pictured, the one that holds your electric hand drill? I'm not sure it looks stable enough - I can picture lots of jumping and juddering around - but maybe others have achieved decent results with one?

Not sure if it has enough 'reach' to drill in the centre of the body where the bridge needs to be, so I had the idea of mounting it to a board, the drill spun round 180 degs on its post so it hangs over the end of the board. This way I can move it around to where I want it, clamp it down, then drill away. Sound feasible?

I have tried the second type shown here that looks like a router base, but there was too much loose movement as the drill was lowered so the results weren't impressive.

Anyway, grateful for any thoughts

 

[jkingma]

If this is a one time thing I would suggest you find a decent drill press to use. Perhaps a friend or a local school that has a woodworking shop would let you use theirs for a short while.

I'm not a fan of the rinky dink bases that turn hand drills into drill presses. Especially for guitar work.

If this is something that you intend to do often on a semi regular basis then I would just buy a decent drill press. It doesn't have to be big... just big enough.

 

[Frodebro]

I've heard a lot of good things about the Big Gator drill guide.

 

[telepraise]

you can get a bench top drill press at Lowes right now for $70. I used a cheap Ryobi for years. If you screw a piece of plywood to the table to extend it, you should be able to work on guitar bodies. I eventually splurged and dropped $350 on a floor standing Delta that's actually made for woodworking. I smile every time I use it. For the job at hand, equally important are high quality spur point bits. The best are american-made and very pricy but they cut holes without tear out and have zero run out. Good luck with your project. …and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[guitarbuilder]

http://www.instructables.com/id/How...Press/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email


Another option I once saw was to make two a corner of two wooden walls coming together at a right angle. You have to use squared up stock. The inside corner will be perpendicular to the bottom. You hold the drill into the corner. Pretty much the same idea as what is in the above link.

 

[sds1]

Around here anyhow, there are loads of used drill presses for sale on Facebook and Craigslist for $50 and less. Personally I think I would favor a used press over one of those drill stand thingies.

 

[Jupiter]

I have one of the router-base-like things, and another base that uses steel inserts for various bit diameters, and all I can say is they aren't foolproof...

I'd say they work about as well as Marty's suggestion.

I'd echo the advice of trying a bit harder to locate a drill press first. I love mine so much it lives in the house!

 

[Verzila]

I intend to do about 2-3 standard electric-sized guitars, and I anticipate some light drilling work - drilling for bridge bushings, string-through-body holes and ferrules, and maybe using a Forstner for control cavities, so it sounds like a modest drill press is the way to go.

How about throat depth? Does 10" (giving me 5" reach across the body) sound reasonable?

 

[guitarbuilder]

I'd be looking for a 14" ( 7" from center of chuck to post or metric equivalent) on a robust drill press. I've seen first hand, the 50 dollar DP's cheap table actually flex when drilling. Obviously finances and availability determine what you end up with, but I've never had to upgrade in going on 4 decades of drilling.

 

[seekir]

I agree with the general consensus here that drill presses are available at pretty reasonable prices. I sometimes drill a block of wood scrap on my cheap press and then use the drilled block as a guide to start holes with my hand-held drill on flat surfaces that can't easily be placed in the drill press for one reason or another. This scheme also works well when you want to enlarge existing holes in something without worrying about the bit jumping around in the existing hole and making a mess—center the drilled wooden guide block hole over the hole you want to enlarge, clamp in place, and drill out the smaller hole. You can then remove the block and increase the depth of the hole if necessary with the new hole guiding the bit. I drilled a plywood block with six appropriately placed holes with my drill press, and then clamped it on a headstock to drill the tuner holes with my hand-held drill. That way I didn't have to go through an awkward process mounting or holding the neck with its angled Gibson-style headstock under the press for each of the six holes. I "sandwiched" a sacrifice piece of ply on the back of the headstock in the clamp to limit tear-out on the back. This works best with regular spiral-type bits which can't wobble much in the guide block, but it also works fairly well with rounded Forstner-style bits if you're drilling shallower holes. I think "spade" bits would jump around too much in the guide block (accordingly, I've never attempted this). The guide block is usually good for several holes before it gets reamed out too much to hold the bit snugly and straight.